Minutes
Members present: Dave Bazard, Deanna Herrera-Thomas, Sean Herrera-Thomas, Shannon Sullivan
Members absent: Dana Maher, Jacqui Caen
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Call to Order at 3:10 PM
Minutes approved of Oct. 2 2015 pending one change as noted on minutes
There were no introductions or public comments
There were no Action Items
Discussion Items
5.1 La Cosecha Date October 15th room 129 at 5:30 Discussion to follow in room 109
5.2 Women’s History Month Film screening is TBA
5.3 The committee made revisions to the existing Bylaws. Deanna Herrera-Thomas requested
that changes made reflect MDC responsibilities accurately. All present members concurred.
Shannon Sullivan, Sean Herrera-Thomas, Dave Bazard and Deanna Herrera-Thomas made
substantive changes to the existing Bylaws so as to reflect the Distance Ed. communities, the
roles and responsibilities of the committee and to support membership that reflects the
diversity of the District constituencies. These changes will be voted on at the next MDC
meeting on October 12 2015.
5.4 Changes in the SEP and the SEPC were unknown at the time of the meeting making a report
impossible, as well as a discussion.
5.5 Event Funding Ideas and Issues were discussed with Mark Winter. He explained that the SEP
will now be funded to the amount of 500K and that a new position might be created to
oversee the funds and the plan. An oversight committee will be created. Mark Winter
explained that the MDC plays a role in directing the SEPC and to make suggestions to
Angelina Hill who will be writing the plan. Mark Winter asked how events have been funded
in the past. Shannon Sullivan stated that events are funded when Keith Snow-Flamer was
approached and if he approved of funding the events. Deanna Herrera-Thomas stated that
funding is by happenstance and does not follow a procedure because there are no
procedures in place. Sadly, the funding will be forthcoming by means of a Dean and division
funds, or sometimes by means of members donating funds or other times the funding
available that is discretionary to the Vice President. This has made event planning difficult
and frustrating. Dave Bazard mentioned that an MDC member Dana Maher asked him for
funds for an event and film which he was able to cover with division funds –or at least
partly. Sean Herrera-Thomas noted that because there is no transparency it is difficult to
know what or what won’t be funded at any time. Deanna Herrera-Thomas stated that this is
too bad because the events fulfill plan initiatives that clearly support the mission of the
college. Mark Winter asked for ideas. He did state that the BSI model will no longer be
used. Deanna Herrera-Thomas stated that funds from the SEP could be directed to the MDC
and there could be criteria created that would make the process clearer. Dave Bazard noted
that the Professional Development Committee obtains funds from the Senate and those
funds are dispersed based upon transparent criteria and there is no reason that the MDC
could not operate in a similar fashion. The Professional Development Committee works
closely with the FLEX committee towards the same ends and the MDC could do the same
with the SEPC. Shannon Sullivan stated that if a position were to be opened for a director of
Student Equity then, this individual should attend MDC meetings.
Mark Winter supported the idea of using the Professional Development Committee model
and Deanna Herrera-Thomas asked if he would advocate for this, since oftentimes requests
and recommendations coming from the MDC are overlooked. He agreed to do this and
would speak with the senate co-presidents and would advocate for the faculty at College
Council.
5.6 The Area E Description was developed by those present. Shannon Sullivan and Sean
Herrera-Thomas crafted grammatically functional language from Deanna Herrera-Thomas’s
first draft. The committee looked at HSU’s Diversity and Common Ground Requirement and
Deanna Herrera-Thomas emphatically argued that having a clear description would help
courses to articulate easily to HSU, would help the Curriculum Committee to determine if
courses meet the Area E category and could help faculty determine if their courses or how
their courses could fit into Area E before developing new curriculum. Dave Bazard
encouraged the use of existing language formats of other GE Area descriptions and the
committee worked on this. However, due to the nature of the GE area criterion the format
did not fit exactly. Shannon Sullivan stated that listing possible courses or areas that could
be considered under the description as Area E, would inhibit faculty from other divisions
from writing curriculum to fit this area. This made sense to all present and the example
courses were left out of the description. Sean Herrera-Thomas stated that no areas had
criteria so it makes the work difficult for the curriculum Committee at times and Dave
Bazard noted that perhaps all of the Area descriptions should include more specificity. All
members present worked to develop a draft for Area E. This discussion led to four specific
areas that a course could focus on. Each course would be required to focus on one (or
more) of the four.
6.0 Reports
Announcements: Shannon Sullivan announced that an artist donated important works to CR.